


Questions

by They_Have_No_Shame



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: F/M, danced around stories so it doesn't reflect too much on my WIP fic, maybe in 20 years who knows, that idk when I will finish, they're just one-shots
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29431752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/They_Have_No_Shame/pseuds/They_Have_No_Shame
Summary: Never wrote for any pairing week and I'm late as ever. Anyway, who also reads Dr. Stone RAWs? Can't wait for that weekly dopamine kick.
Relationships: Ishigami Senkuu/Kohaku
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36





	1. Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> Weddings are supposed to be wonderful.

Kohaku fidgets with her longer than usual - a little bit above her knees - white, cotton dress. The spring sun didn't bring far too much warmth or enough light for many plants to burst out of their buds, but it was enough to allow snowdrops to crack out of the icy ground and sprinkle the area around them like a spring equivalent of a snow sheet. 

And no snowdrop had cracked out more beautifully than her sister, Ruri.

She's as white as every receptionist, attendant, friend and family and everyone in-between - yet, as she gracefully and daintily walks down the row of onlookers - her white gown almost seems to be what someone like Gen would poetically describe as "a pure white that not even pearls could rival". Incidentally, he also said that. The silk dress frills around the back, with not a huge train to task a child to hold it up or accidentally butt into someone. Usually down, the golden blonde hair is tied and twisted up, tucked so that it would mold with her headpiece and seem as if it was truly a crown and not a veil. The light make-up, Kohaku thinks, wasn't needed to enchant her beautiful, loving expression.

Compared to all the previous weddings in the tribe that Kohaku had been to, this one was a bit different - all these white, matching decorations and dresses were ideas borrowed from the stone people. By tradition, the event would not have been any less pretty - with Ruri’s request, they added snowdrops to her weil -, but it was a perfect mold of personality of the bride and groom.

Kohaku loves this moment. She adores this day. However, in a bittersweet jealousy, this also signifies a loss of a sister. Ruri won’t live under their family roof, eat the same disaster meal. She’s planning to leave with Chrome, see the world she could only watch outside the soulless box of a window for most of her life.

Kohaku’s so happy, yet also in pathetic pain.

Senku - at her side, dressed in a tuxedo Yuzuriha had made months prior - sees her fingers abusing the cotton so monstrously that it leaves marks in the fabric. He quietly chuckles in amusement and reassuringly places a hand over hers. It makes her jolt.

While Kohaku's father passes his oldest daughter's hand to a nervously joyful Chrome, Senku leans in and whispers. "Don’t worry,” he squeezes her hands, “just a few more hours, and this all will be finished.”

She eases, eyeing him out of the corner of her eye: “Is there nothing more special?”

“Were you expecting something?” She shrugs, wistfully watching the exchanging of rings. Ruri's fingers are slender. “To be honest, when Chrome told us that he wanted to have some type of 21st century ceremony, we couldn't offer a lot on the table. Turns out, it didn’t really differ from what you have now.”

Chrome and Ruri finish their vows and lean in a sweet, chaste kiss. Everyone applauds. Although Kohaku brightly smiles, there is still visible pain. Something Senku keenly notices. The bride and groom - wife and husband - excitedly look around at the swimming happiness and excitedly start to walk back to the village. Ruri’s eyes briefly catch Kohaku’s. There is a sisterly love passed between them.

"Marriage doesn't mean that Chrome is going to take your sister away from you," says Senku. His deductions are sickly accurate.

"No, it doesn't… but it feels like it anyway," she sighs, then breathes in and blinks away the worries. "No matter how much time I spend with her, or how long I live by her side, it would never be enough." She watches the newlywed couple’s backs: "Chrome better take good care of Ruri." Senku laughs.

People start moving to the next part of the ceremony - which was Kohaku's favorite, since the whole tribe would prepare a feast rivaling that of a New Year's celebration, and she could guzzle down meat without worry. With the crowd having grown over the years, the two linger aback, walking more leisurely, content with watching happiness from the side.

As they walk back to the village - houses have expanded outside the tiny cliff island; veining a good distance even past Chrome's old house - Kohaku looks at the frilly bows and rosaries making bridges overhead. Connecting from roof to roof, they all come in the middle pillar that is surrounded by tables and food. Unlike previous times, when her village was a little over thirty people, this time the guests have reserved tables. She rises on her sandal toes, craning her neck.

Senku clasps her shoulder, and she leans in. "Over there," he says, pointing at the ant swarm of people, "Gen is waving us." Kohaku searches and finds the mentalist with a charming grin and a pheasant feather tophat. Weaving through groups of people, Senku places a hand around her back, making sure they can stick together through the crowds. “She’ll be fine,” he says in her ear. She looks at him. He smiles: “You’ll both be.”

She stares at him. Then the cloud over her head swims away, and she scoffs a giggle, lightly punching his shoulder. He acts as if it hurt. They sit down beside Gen, where the mentalist gives them a grin while taking off his outlandish hat.

“I cannot wait to see you in a dress like that,” he says jokingly, leaning his cheek on his hand.

“Hah, I doubt that’ll ever happen to me,” Kohaku replies, starting to eye the food on their table. Senku places the larger serving of meat closer to her. “Thank you.”

“You’re right,” Gen pours a cup of peppermint tea for her, “but life is as mysterious as fate. Wouldn't you like to have a taste of it?”

Senku scoffs: “You’re romanticizing too much again, mentalist.”

Gen jesterly swoons and says that he is a romantic at heart. With his acting, petals fall out of his sleeves. Kohaku lazily lays her head on her folded arms, ignoring the cheeky conversation flying over her head. Absentmindedly, with perhaps of Gen's hooking words, for herself, she wonders what she would look like in her sister’s mesmerizing dress. All those frills bouncing around her hips, the corset defining her strong back, her hair in a glossy twist with the weil hiding the world until her beloved reveals it anew.

“Oh- OH! I forgot to toss the bouquet!! ...Okay, readyyy-?”

Kohaku confusedly looks up at her sister’s shouting, but, as her nose rises, a stem of white daffodils, snowdrops, and bell flowers drops on her head. It slides down and falls in her shocked hands. Stupefied, she looks at girls growling, men cheering, Gen triumphantly grinning, and Senku defiantly groaning.

The only thought running through her head now is that this wasn’t part of tradition.


	2. Jealousy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Isn't jealousy a bit too far?

They had to return to Treasure Island for emergency repairs, due to a heavy storm sabotaging the communication system. Ukyo, and mostly everyone, deemed it not safe to travel without a proper way to navigate on the sea (Ryusui protested on that) and hear any news from their land teams. Luckily, their journey around the world had led to a literal meaning of the saying, and now they were around a giant bonfire on the eldest tree’s protecting branches, a festivity thrown by Soyuz and his people for their unplanned visit.

Kohaku’s isn’t an aficionado of fruits, but some are bittersweetly delicious - a blend she enjoys. Amaryllis also introduced her with a new conditioner she had experimented on, and it does  _ wonders _ to her tangles.

The lioness had been in her friend’s home while everyone was eating, but, waiting for the oils to set in, she crawled out of Amaryllis hold, saying she would snatch some snacks and come right back. There are lanterns lit in the tree’s branches and around the railings, illuminating the quiet walk. It’s bright enough to not get lost, but she does so anyway in the stars. Senku and Ryusui have been using them a lot in ocean travel, and she started to pick some things up simply out of overhearing.

“That’s the  _ Ursa Major,” _ she mutters while thoughtfully tapping her chin. She heard that some constellations aren’t visible all year round. The circumpolar constellations - those found on the hemisphere they are located on and discerning all year - are the ones that are used for astronavigation. Knowing  _ Ursa Major, _ you can also find the North Star, which leads to: “ _ Ursa Minor.  _ That huge ‘W’ is the  _ Cassiopeia _ . And that is-”

“-and that is  _ Orion, _ or The Hunter.”

Senku stands at the illuminated railing, pointing at the constellation he just mentioned. By him - a girl Kohaku doesn’t know. She has the same baggy dress that this island is known for, but hers is slim around the waist, hugging her curves in all the right places. She has undefined arms and legs, though. Most of this village’s women don’t, due to previous regime’s rules. That prodded them to be more cunning and sly under their petal lips and seashell eyelashes.

Although Kohaku can respect a person to hone any strength to survive, there’s a sudden, vile pit bubbling in her belly from seeing the girl leaning too feverishly on Senku’s arm. Is she intoxicated? Her head is swaying like a ragdoll, yet Senku doesn’t mind when it bumps against him. From her heavy leaning, he stumbles enough for Kohaku to see a cup in his hand. Uncharacteristic of him. She has to know now.

“Senku, are you all right?”

He turns his head her way, squinting: “Lioness? What’s with the coconut oil in your hair?”

Kohaku glances at the girl starting to drown in sleep on Senku’s shoulder. She’ll fall in about five minutes. “Amaryllis is pampering me. It’s a girl thing, I think.” She leans closer, and all assumptions meet. “Have you been drinking?”

His brow lowers from a grave accusation: “I have  _ not.” _ He slowly blinks. “I have.”

“What's the occasion?”

“There’s not really much to share.”

“No, I have time,” she glances back at the girl, “but can I… take her back to her friends?”

He looks down at the girl drooling on his coat. “Oh, sure, will close the hose." Kohaku discreetly sputters over her shoulder while she takes away the girl bridal style. Senku gives an offhand comment, asking, if he falls asleep, can she carry him like that too. She replies with a laugh. The girl's friend group is just as wobble legged, except for one. Like a mother hen, she rushes to Kohaku and thanks her for finding her chick. The girl had never drank before, so the designated sobre person was having a heart attack for a while now. As a reward or extended appreciation, she picks out the best fruits and meat skewers for Kohaku.

Returning to the one-man occupied railing, Kohaku, with a mouthful of food, stops by Senku's hunched over back. He's asleep.

Kohaku takes the half-finished cup out of his limp hold, swirling it (wine), and finishes to the last drop.

\---

After carrying him to bed, they don't speak for three days. Not of avoidance or some anger - getting back on the sea is top priority. They grunt or nod at each other, and it's enough.

The girl from that night - Kohaku caught with her hawk sight - approached him. From afar, she comically emoted some worry while Senku shrugged it off. It only happened once, yet the image was seared in Kohaku's brain to puff fumes while she almost left Ginro with a dent in his arm from the grip she had when she found him lazing about.

A few more days later, when all's been repaired and restocked, the crew get another feast. Dancing and singing, sparring and a fair share of intimacies sound far away from Kohaku's ears as she stands on the highest platform of the festive tree. Air here is colder, with lanterns snuffing out here and there. Fireflies become more noticable, and the smell of lavender itches her nose.

"So you were hiding here."

She turns her head to Senku approaching with a grin. There is no cup in his hand, but it is replaced by a plate of a saucy squid. It mouthwateringly smells of Francoise's cooking. She gulps when he sets the plate on the railing and slides it to her.

"You already know who made it. Especially for you."

Without further motivation, she grabs at the chopsticks and slurps up. Gosh, Francoise made squids taste as if they were angels of the sea.

He talks while she melts in flavor heaven. "Gen told me you're jealous."

She spits, but manages to keep the food between her teeth and not waste it. She swallows the lump. "I am not," her voice is hoarse.

"I believe you," he shrugs. She furrows her brow. "That girl from that night came a day later to apologize. She was ashamed of her actions and thanked me for not taking advantage. I told her to not dwell on it and said that I was just glad you were there to escort her back to her friends. She says thanks, by the way."

Kohaku 'oh's. The black tar pit in her stomach empties immediately. The night air feels fresher.

Senku teasingly grins: “Were you jealous-?”

“I  _ wasn't!”  _ she glares with the sharpness of her katana at her hip.

He flings up his hands: “Alright. Sorry.”

Kohaku lessens her glare, but still squints with a pout. “I wasn't,” she repeats less hotly, but with the same undertone.

Senku nods: “Mhm, got it.”

“I really wasn't.”

“So I’ve heard.”

Crickets become louder as they stand in silence. Fireflies tickle her feet, desperately romping the single night they are given. She shakes them off.

Senku starts to chuckle to himself while gazing at the stars above.

“What are you laughing at,” she tries to find some strange smiley in the stars. Perhaps a celestial joke.

He shakes his head: “We haven’t talked in a while and the first thing we do is fight over something so stupid.”

She scowls: “I don’t think it’s stupid.”

“Isn’t it? Jealousy is born from doubt.” Kohaku blinks, and it seems as if the world becomes clearer. “Do you doubt me?” he asks.

She thinks without needing to: “I don’t. But you didn't tell me the reason you got drunk that night.”

He 'ah's. His fingers tap together, thoughtful, then he shyly starts: "I was… It was my old man's birthday."

Her bright blue's soften: "Oh, I'm sorry for…"

"Nah, don't bother. I wasn't sad. In movies, they used to show people drinking to commemorate an occasion. Needles to say, I'm not doing that again, and I doubt the old man would weep if I just thought of him for a day," he smiles fondly.

She mimics, understanding that Senku is a man of science to the bone. She bumps her shoulder with his: "He'd weep from joy."

He scoffs, but doesn't lean away: "Don't be a sap."

"Tell me more about him?" she looks up to him.

Senku's heart stutters from how many stars reflect in her shimmering globes. He hums softly, focusing back to the real deal: "Well, he was an overly enthusiastic astronomer with a hobby for robots…"


	3. Roomates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have we met? Modern AU

He knew he'd start to struggle with housework when Taiju would eventually leave to live with Yuzuriha, but did the oaf have to leave so suddenly? The vacuum cleaner weighed a ton, and he doubts the apartment owner (a man Senku suspects is an American sniper) would enjoy a pulley system throughout one of the rooms.

So, the next logical thing to do, of course, is to put out a wanted poster. It was a simple, one line text, that read:  _ "Anyone strong enough to lift a 20kg vacuum cleaner is welcome." _

The ad didn't bring anyone for a week - a gruesome week Senku thought he'd die from the living room horror carpet. But, at 9 o'clock, on a  _ Saturday morning, _ he is awoken by his shrill doorbell.

It was insistent, as if the person didn’t hear the ringing through the door. He trips out of his room, glaring at the cursed carpet, cleaner, dumbbells, that Taiju forgot to take away, and whatever else was out of his strength to lift. Unlocking and opening the door, he expects a mailman, neighbor, or that love-struck girl who he only met in one joint class, but now keeps visiting him for unreasonable reasons.

He’s half-right. It’s a woman, for one.

“Hi. Kohaku,” she thrusts her hand. The startling forwardness makes him shake it subconsciously. “Where’s the vacuum cleaner?”

If the woman didn’t mention his peculiar ad, Senku would have thought she was a government worker searching him down. Visually, with a tightly tied updo, she doesn’t look older than twenty - young, bright azure eyes -, but she’s dressed in baggy, black shirt and wide pants. As out of the blue as it is to see a  _ hakama, _ he’s glad he hid the propane tanks in the closet, anyway. Stepping aside, he points at the accused device.

Although the shoes she wears are for track, there is another pair she puts aside that were in her hand. They're for kendo, and he only knows this because his college has a club for it. Yuzuriha's club gets commissions from them to weave those shoes.

Outside science or whenever his friends drag him out of the class lab, Senku doesn't go out of his way to meet new people or let alone remember their names, faces, and what else you need to sustain a relationship. He saw it as a hassle since, when broken, you have to go through a strenuous process to mend it. There is a simple satisfaction in watching a process from afar - and this woman, he racks his brain, is someone he has seen out of the lab's window. Perhaps even talked.

While watching the woman’s taut form and familiar, golden ponytail crouch down, Senku thoughtfully taps his chin: “Have we… met?”

Kohaku stands up - with the cleaner in one hand and the  _ 40kg _ dumbbell in the other - and turns to him, also thoughtful. “Hmm, wait, you’re Ishigami Senku, right?”

He isn’t sure how to comment on what he is witnessing, so he perks at her knowing his full name, because that wasn’t mentioned in the ad. “Yeah. I’m assuming you study in the same college, then. Street over?”

“Mhm,” she lifts the items questioningly, and he points at a corner, thanking her, “I enrolled last year and was staying with my sister, but… You know Chrome?”

The woman is becoming more interesting by the sentence. She knows his name, she lives with her sister, but responded to his ad, and she knows Chrome - a year younger student studying mineralogy, who, when having set one step in the science lab, fell in love with the whole curriculum. Working with him for a while now, Senku couldn't label them as close as friends, yet they had similar interests that drew them to be acquaintances.

"I know him. Friend of yours?"

"Since childhood," she nods, then grimly turns away, "he had a crush on my sister for years and confessed recently. They started going out and, well, I don't think I need to go in detail why I want to stay here."

"Sounds… rough?"

Kohaku startles: "Oh, I'm actually happy for them! They've been really close for a long time, and don't think the age gap is huge. She's about… your age? Sorry, Chrome has mentioned you the few times he wasn't talking about rocks and other weird science stuff."

Senku waves dismissively: "Don't worry. None of my business. But - we will have a problem if you talk that way about science, Gorilla."

She jolts at the last word. A low growl, like a lioness, rumbles out of her. "Hey, your post only said to lift a dumb  _ vacuum cleaner! _ I did my job. Is the offer still standing?”

He grins heartily. He thinks he’s too trusting - this is far too fast for a common companionship to bloom. Yet, as he glances at the elephant vacuum cleaner and the lonely dumbbells in the corner, that doesn’t bother him. Kohaku, from the way she airly and boldly, fearlessly even, speaks and acts, is a breath of air in this musky apartment. She doesn’t like to dance around something, is clear as possible and, most importantly, has overwhelming strength. It surprises him that he was craving for a company like her’s all this time.

“Yea, you can move right in,” he holds out a hand. “Senku Ishigami. Happy to meet you.”


	4. First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who was your first?
> 
> Follows Roommates AU

Aside from the  _ Kugelrohr _ working in another room, the science class is silent. Scent here is clinical, which comes from gloves and that one brand’s terrible soap. The atmosphere depends if there previously was any disaster, or if the users cleaned up after themselves. However, Senku is used to it. He doesn’t mind company, if someone has to work overtime, but he’ll mostly stick with his own experiments. Which, on most days, leaves him being the last one to leave. It sounds that wonderful.

The metal door slams open, and the peace is destroyed by Chrome’s shock.

“ _ Kohaku _ is your new roommate??” he shouts.

Senku cringes at the loudness. He turns his head to Chrome, who leans close over his shoulder, and replies with an annoyed: “ _ Yes.” _

Chrome stares. He leans off, pulls at his hairs, disbelief in his stumble around the room, and looks at everything as if he was suddenly on an alien world - where the person he looked up to was living with his girlfriend’s sister, who he might have inadvertently kicked out of the house. He had panicked after finding out a week prior - not from Ruri or Kohaku herself, but a passing mentalist.

All the while, Senku continues his work. The hypothesis is proving itself right. One more drop of ethanol and he’ll have-

“You’re not together, right?”

Chrome’s voice in Senku’s ear startles the glass vial to fall out of hand and shatter on the floor. It doesn’t reek as nose abusive as H2S, but it is wasted science equipment. Senku gives a fleeting glare, which tells Chrome to get cleaning supplies: “No.”

Chrome rushes to the room where the  _ Kugelrohr _ is humming. “How’d you meet, then,” he calls.

Senku tiredly leans against the table, taking off disposable gloves and looking at the clock. It shows past 8 o’clock, afternoon. The windows were dark. “Taiju moved with Yuzuriha. I needed someone with strength to help me out.”

“And?” calls Chrome with some background noise.

“And what?”

“Is Kohaku helping.”

“Ah,” he pauses, thinking. They’ve been living together for less than a month, yet had made grounds for each other. She helps with heavy lifting, while he tutors. His scholarship also covers the bills. Even though she had insisted, saying that she could squeeze in a job between school and clubs, but, seeing her wildcard diet, he firmly rejected. He did that previously with Taiju too, so, to Senku, it felt as if nothing changed.

They split everything else, though. Chores including the stupid vacuum cleaner is solely hers. She had asked if it wouldn’t be better to buy a roomba, to which he opened the door to his room and unashamedly showed her his collection of questionable chemicals and hazardous machines. He didn't want to risk it when he hauled out important stuff, and, if there was a chance, some stray screw or note was sucked in by the innocent robot.

She, to his surprise, took everything in awe. Although he would have chalked her into every other schoolgirl he passes by, due to now being roommates, they had been forced - or her cat-like curiosity prodded her - to interact with one another.

Her grades weren't prodigious. She excelled at physical strength, considering her appearance, and cared for her sister and friends. On weekends she either lazed around sleeping on the couch, or, if there were plans, she was gone for the day. Occasionally, she audaciously egged over his arm to go out for groceries or a run to the hotspring. The hotspring was 5km away.

He still isn't sure if she bullies or cajoles him into those. For comfort, he knows a bit too much about her, and she knows a bit too much about him.

"She helps with various things. Very useful, if a bit fiery."

Chrome cleans up the mess with a reminiscing smile on his face: "Her monster strength freaked me out when I was younger, but she always beat up bullies for me."

"Don't think I wanna know how'd she take that if she were here," Senku teases.

"All the best, all the best!" Chrome laughs. "Even Ruri, now that she's healthy again, can run a marathon and get first place 'just for fun'. What kind of women have we fallen for."

Senku pales: "Absurd. You're the only smitten one."

"Say what you want to hear, but, when I found out about your predicament, Ruri supplied me with  _ more _ than enough information to conduct a test ten times over." He watches Senku's glare harden. It's colder than steel. Chrome shifts, sensing his mistake, and hastens to clean up.

Silence weighs heavy like the air on a freezing mountaintop. The  _ Kugelrohr _ doesn’t beep that it has stopped its job. Chrome goes to dispose the shattered glass and rinses the wash cloth. Senku, having been still for all this time, finally moves to the hummingless room. When Chrome walks there too, the other scientist has retrieved the small, distilled chemical from the ball-tube and shuts off the distillator completely. He handles his work with a calculated care, leaving whatever he can’t take in a small, reserved space, and packs his bag.

“Are you going to be here long?” Senku asks.

Chrome startles. “No… I came just to see you.”

Senku’s eyes flicker in acknowledgement. “Then let’s go. I’m locking up.”

They do so, leave the keys to the security officer at the main door, and go out in the February’s dry night.

Winter this year has been sitting more harshly, driving people to huddle up in their homes. Senku remembers Kohaku grumping around the apartment, when she had overexerted herself and gotten sick. She was a monster in strength, but she was even more menacing in her stubbornness to accept care from others. Never sitting still, feeling too cold although she had three layers of blankets (including his), and crawling out of her room to blurt out his name.

That drowsy caterpillar in his doorway did awful things to his heart.

At a crossroad, he speaks up: “I don’t think I’m in love.” Chrome perks up, listening. “But I do care about her,” he says in his scarf.

He doesn’t look at Chrome’s satisfied smile. “I’m happy with that, too,” he says.

\---

He returns to a snuffed laptop speaker playing an old movie's tune. The lights are out but the computer’s, which is placed on the coffee table; in front of the couch, where Kohaku silently sits. He takes off his shoes and coat, walking in with an ‘I’m home’.

She greets him back and says: "Luna came by today."

Senku leadenly throws his book bag on his bed. In the doorway, he considers replying and continuing his work. However, Kohaku is slouching over her knees with a blanket wrapped around herself. Her eyes, even though illuminated by the cold white of the screen, are half-lidded. Not lifeless or bored, but something between thoughtful and confused.

He goes to drop beside her.

Without his input, she speaks: "Valentine's Day is coming. She asked if you wanna go anywhere." 

He hums, slowly reading her tone and body. She's met Luna before and said that she doesn't want to get in between whatever she and him have (he annoyedly told that there wasn't anything going on, to which she still indifferently shrugged, leaving as so). There's something else bothering her.

"You watch Godzilla movies when you're upset over something," he starts. She glances at him. "What happened? Lost a match? Got a bad grade?"

She glares and grumbles in her knees; then, after a short pause, angrily punches in the cushion. If it had been a wooden plank, she'd have drilled straight through it. "Nothing like that," she mumbles, "its stupid and annoying to think about, but it… unnerves me to no end!"

Senku watches the blanket roll frustratedly growl and punch away frustration, waiting for her to continue.

As a shocking scene in the movie happens, she speaks her worries: "I got kissed today."

Godzilla bellows. People panic and scatter like ants. A chorus of screams, roars, stomps and wreckage floods the room - till it cuts to a scientist with an eyepatch refusing to help the hero. Senku turns to her. "By whom?"

"...Mozu."

He's a man that hungrily leers on every passing woman, and it's worse on Kohaku, because he attends the same club. "Kicked him in the shins?"

She dryly huffs, turning to give him an appreciated smile, but replies: "No. I froze up."

Senku's eyes soften: "I doubt we can get him expelled, but… I can make some pretty nasty stuff with what I have in my room."

She laughs a bit at that. There is sad mirth in her eyes now. "It's… fine."

His brows scowl seriously: "You know it's not."

She puffs a long sigh. "I don't want to get revenge. I'll keep my distance from him and stick with Kirisame more. Now, I just want to think of something else."

They finish watching the movie. Scientist agrees to help, makes a bomb that will destroy Godzilla, but sacrifices himself for everyone. Senku's eyes droop as Kohaku leans away from their shared blanket to turn off the laptop. In a matter of seconds, light disappears.

In the dark, where only the lights from outside street lamps and zipping by ghost cars hardly illuminates the room, Kohaku's voice shyly asks in his ear: "Have you ever fallen in love?"

He slightly turns her way and feels her breath on his jaw. "No. Needless emotions complicate things."

"Then," she shifts, her thigh contacting his, "can I kiss you without emotions?"

Even in his drowsy state, her words are a silver bell in his ears. Her callous hands warmly hold his arm, her lips are a single answer away.

The strange swell in his chest overwhelms him. "Yes," he breathes.

He isn't her first kiss, but she is his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Kugelrohr (German for "ball tube") is a small vacuum distillator.


End file.
